The Challenges of Leading a Balanced Life: Rest and Recovery

In order to be optimal in any area of life,

If we don’t give our bodies rest after intense exercise,

the body will not repair and we won’t reap the benefits from our difficult workouts.

The same goes for work and business.

When we continue to push forward without a break, our productivity levels decline. In order to keep our ability to be creative and competent, our brains need regular rest and recovery time.

Diana and I were pushing really hard in our businesses these last few months

and we came to a point where we really needed a break. Like most entrepreneurs, our “to-do” lists are a mile-long, and we both have a hard time allowing ourselves to take it down a notch in our work. Ultimately we did, which is why you haven’t seen a blog post from me in about a month.

In the video we talk about how taking time for rest and recovery is both difficult, and necessary.

It’s a balancing skill that one needs to work at. Thankfully, we’ve gotten pretty good at listening to our bodies, and we encouraged one another to take good care.

Small quantities of stress is good.

It’ll help you to excel at your work. It’ll help you to reach greater levels of fitness. It’ll challenge you to learn and grow.

Large quantities of stress without a break can be dangerous.

It’ll degrade your brain function, mess up your digestive system, even shut down your reproductive system. Because stress hinders your immune system and your ability to control inflammation, the list of problems it can cause to your body is long and diverse.

For this reason, rest and recovery time is essential for optimal health.

Everyone needs a hand with this sometimes. That’s why we created our online course, the Self Care Boost – to help others get more balance into life.

When you take time off

from an intense project, hard exercise, or work – do you feel guilty or are you satisfied because you know you’re taking good care of yourself? Or do you have a hard time making it a priority?

Write your answers in the comments below. We want to hear from you.

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3 Comments

Great to hear about your view, Solange. I can very much relate to the ‘feeling guilty’ for taking time off. I used to get ill at the beginning of a holiday because that was the time when my body knew ‘now i can let go’. Really no good for anyone. Now that i do listen to my body and take it down a notch without feeling guilty, I take care of my body much better and can also give more to people around me. A win-win situation!

This came at the right time. I can really relate to this video. I am always struggling with work/life balance — have done so for years. I used to feel guilty about taking time off but have realized it is equally important to take time to replenish one’s mind, body and soul. Like Luci, if I avoid taking a break, my body will do it for me and that is never pleasant. It is not pleasant fighting a really bad cold or the flu. Besides, if I keep working, the end product might not be as good as if I had taken a break. It is no good to spread yourself thin.

When I do take a vacation, it does take me several days to ‘let go’ to the point where my mind is not constantly preoccupied with something. However, when I return from my vacation, I definitely perform better. By the way, enterpreneurs are not the only ones with endless to-do-lists 🙂